ANC KZN: MPs must toe party line in no-confidence vote

Citizen reporter

President Jacob Zuma attends a luncheon for world leaders during the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 20 September 2016. EPA/PETER FOLEY / POOL

The ANC KZN said the planned motion of no confidence was a waste of time and resources.

The African National Congress (ANC) in the eThekwini region has reportedly put five of its seven members deployed in Parliament on notice, ordering them not to abandon President Jacob Zuma ahead of a planned no-confidence vote tabled by opposition parties.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, the party’s regional secretary Bheki Ntuli said he viewed the motion as bearing the hallmarks of idiocy, as it was a waste of time and resources by a “reckless” opposition, TimesLIVE reported.

“Its intention is only to cast aspersions and innuendos on the ANC and integrity of the person of the President. The President is a strategic hill [sic] and targeting him as the head of the organisation is intended to destroy the ANC.

“We call upon all eThekwini deployees into the national parliament to rebuff this counter-revolutionary agenda and attempts at regime change by political stealth‚” Ntuli was quoted as saying.

He was speaking during a regional executive committee media briefing in Durban.

Ntuli said that the KZN provincial structure had already met with five of the MPs who come from the eThekwini region to inform them to toe the party line when the motion is debated in the National Assembly.

“We have sat down with them so that we give them a directive to only implement decisions of the ANC in parliament‚” he said.

According to the report, Ntuli singled out ANC MP Makhosi Khoza following her comments on Facebook in April about politics of patronage within the ruling party.

Khoza had earlier said that if the ANC failed to deal with the country’s most pressing challenges, the party would be effectively giving power on a “silver platter” to opposition parties.

“Politics of patronage has finally claimed the sanity of my ANC leadership. A triumphant story has turned tragic in my lifetime. The ANC is defining itself out of power when the majority of its people remain trapped in poverty‚ joblessness‚ dependency on state social grants,” she said in her post.

“Makhosi Khoza knows the processes. She does like members who get defeated in the debate in the caucus and go out to other platforms – the media – to air their views,” Ntuli said.

Other regional deployees to Parliament are Bheki Cele and Mina Lesoma.